What will it be? A bottle of nice whiskey or a 1TB external hard drive? What will it be? → Read More
Nikon Japan is planning [JP] to offer an online service that allows users to convert conventional 2D images into 3D in order to view them on a dedicated 3D photo frame. Starting December this year, the service will be open to Japanese members of “my Picturetown”, an online photo sharing and storage service run by Nikon (which already exists). → Read More
If you were browsing HP’s online catalog and quietly dreaming of a 3D-ified version of the HP Envy 17, it’s your lucky day. First, run out and buy a lottary ticket and then come right back here and peep the latest edition to HP’s Envy line: The Envy 17 3D. → Read More
Ever wonder what the inspiration was for the Facebook Friends icon, the one with the outline of two people side-by-side? Neither have I. But now that Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley put up this side-by-side comparison of images on his Tumblog, I will never be able to look at the outline of the woman friend’s bob haircut again without thinking of Darth Vader’s helmet.
It’s just a funny photoshopped juxtapostion with the caption, “I’m sure this is where the Facebook ‘Friends’ icon came from.” I don’t want to psychoanalyze Crowley too much on this. He simply reblogged something he found amusing from someone else’s Tumblog. (That is what you do on Tumblr. It’s like retweeting). But you have to wonder if he doesn’t feel a little bit like the Luke Skywalker friend. → Read More
Acer is locked and loaded for a total assault on the tablet market. The company’s CEO told the WSJ that it has a whole series of tablets ready for a NYC launch event on November 23rd. Said tablets are supposed to be sold between $299 and $699. And that’s where the fun facts stop. Mr. Gianfranco Lanci didn’t mention how many tablets were coming or when they would be available. Nope, just the announcement date and price made the report. → Read More
Sure we still have wars and cancer and cold sores. Sure we can’t solve the crisis in the Mid-East and many Americans live achingly close to the poverty line. Sure we can’t blot out racism, homophobia, and irrational traditions. But we can make tubeless toilet paper and dammit, it’s a start. → Read More
If there was one problem with the otherwise excellent Eye-Fi card it’s that images stored to the card had the nasty habit of appearing on public Flickr accounts without their owners knowledge – images that usually involved the owner in a compromising position with a close, naked friend or a barnyard mammal. Sure you can control where the Eye-Fi sends stuff but not many people bothered with those settings.
The company has just announced Eye-Fi View, a sharing system that makes sense. View creates a temporary private storage space for all Eye-Fi users where it keeps photos safe and sound for up to a week (you can buy unlimited storage for $4.99 or $49 a year.) You can see the updated View UI at http://center.eye.fi/. → Read More
Resilient storage solutions provider Cleversafe this morning announced that it has secured $31.4 million in an extension of its series C funding from new and existing investors including Motorola Ventures, New Enterprise Associates and OCA Ventures.
Earlier this week, the cloud storage company also announced that it had received a strategic investment from and inked a development agreement with In-Q-Tel (IQT), the not-for-profit investment firm that was launched by the CIA back in 1999. → Read More
Like the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore or Hublot Big Bang, the Chopard Mille Miglia is a constant force of consistency, which little changes each year to help spice up a core collection timepiece that hopes to find a delicious new flavor to tempt you. It is like you know you enjoy ice cream, but are sick of chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry. So in this case, with the Mille Miglia, Chopard offers up potentially tasty new flavors to re-enliven your interest. 2010 first sees two new limited edition models with the Chopard Mille Miglia XL GT Chrono 2010, which is limited to 2010 pieces (imagine that), and the new Chopard Mille Miglia Grand Prix de Monaco Historique Chronograph 2010 – a new version of a Monaco tribute watch limited to 250 pieces in rose gold, with the steel version being a new edition to the overall collection (until they discontinue it down the line). Both watches are pleasing to the eye, fun, and fashionable. → Read More
The 3D boom knows no end. Pioneer Japan today announced [JP] two Blu-ray players supporting 3D content, the BDP-LX54 (pictured above) as the high-end model, and the BDP-430. Apart from Blu-ray discs, the players are also compatible to the following formats: DivX HD, MKV, WMV, MP3, WMA, and JPEG. → Read More
According to an SEC filing, cloud-based phone systems provider RingCentral has raised $10 million in its third institutional financing round (with another $851,240 remaining to be sold).
The filing lists previous investors Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital – it’s unclear whether the company’s third backer, DAG Ventures, also participated. → Read More
Industry sources at Foxconn Technology and Compal Communications are stating that they are currently manufacturing multiple WebOS devices including the so-called PalmPad. → Read More
The clock is counting down until November 2, when American citizens will flock (hopefully) to their local polling places to cast their votes for the mid-term elections. And you can bet some of them will be checking in on Foursquare. To mark the occasion, Foursquare has teamed up with noted design firm JESS3 to create a dynamic map, which will display Foursquare check-ins in real-time at nearly 107,000 polling locations across the country. You’ll be able to access it at http://elections.foursquare.com/ → Read More
uCIRRUS, which markets real-time enterprise operating software dubbed PUSHvm, this morning announced that it has closed a $4 million funding round led by SK telecom Ventures and joined by Qualcomm Ventures and ATA Ventures.
The company says the fresh capital will be used to accelerate the product roadmap for PUSHvm, which powers real-time datastream processing and delivery of large volumes of customized data for its clients, thus reducing their infrastructure costs. → Read More
Barry Diller realizes that his Ask search engine isn’t going to gain market share anytime soon, but search can still power growth for IAC if it just keeps up with the growth in the overall search market. IAC released third quarter earnings this morning. Total revenues were up 25 percent to $422 million. Operating income quadrupled to $36 million, and adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.32 versus Wall Street estimates of $0.27. (However, after stripping out the adjustments due to one-time sales of stock and other assets a year ago, net income was actually down 19 percent).
Search represented nearly half of revenues ($205 million). The search business grew 20 percent, goosed primarily by a 55 percent increase in active toolbars to 97 million. IAC’s toolbar business is its secret distribution weapon, but those searches tend to generate lower revenue per query than those on Ask.com, which itself is still growing and is now ranked as the sixth largest website in the U.S. LAst month, Ask CityGrid Media’s new local advertising network also contributed to overall search revenues. → Read More
Online analytics company Compete has just published its ranking of the top 50 websites for September 2010, giving some insights into current visitor trends (and not absolute numbers, as the company tends to undercount traffic for most websites).
Compete’s data compilation shows increasing traffic to Microsoft’s search engine Bing (up 11.7 percent for the month and 108.5 percent for the year) as well as Ask.com (up 8.7 percent for the month and 75.3 percent for the year). → Read More
Have you ever walked into your neighborhood Sephora only to feel utterly inundated by a sea of colorful beauty products? There are literally thousands of slots filled with bronzers, eye palettes, brushes, moisturizers, foundations, creams, creating a dizzying kaleidoscope of shades and scents.
As someone who doesn’t pour over fashion magazines for the latest product and make-up tips, it’s simply overwhelming. I’ve always wondered why we couldn’t take the makeup discovery process out of the box, aka the brick and mortar experience, and bring it into the home in a real, non-Mary Kay tactile way that’s a step beyond mere online shopping.
A new breed of startups are trying to do that, including New York-based BirchBox, which just raised a $1.4 million seed round led by First Round Capital and Accel Partners. → Read More
We’re hearing from two separate sources that Nasza Klasa, the largest Polish social networking platform, is on the block for €130 million.
Launched in November 2006, at its height the service had over 27 million registered users. But figures have been nose-diving this year as Facebook eats into its core social networking user base. It may be that heat from Facebook which is prompting the sale. We’ve reached out to Nasza Klasa for comment. → Read More
CherryPad Orders Unfulfilled, Customers Antsy Sanyo Celebrates eneloop’s 5th Anniversary With Glitter Batteries Review: Tonka Ricochet RC Car Hands-On With the Nook Color Nice Knowing You, Nook → Read More
In a world of Angry Birds and Foursquare, I’m not sure how AT&T came up with this one.
This week, AT&T unleashed the Eco-App, a youth-centric iPhone app that tries to promote sustainability through education. It’s hard to argue with a such a legitimate, noble goal but the app itself is a bit of a head scratcher. As explained on AT&T’s website, the Eco-App has two top features: a tool to help teens find nearby recycling centers and educational resources to help teens comprehend the “environmental benefits of paperless billing.”
File this under the increasingly expanding folder of “What was AT&T Thinking?” → Read More
